Religious Interactions in Mughal India

Description

Hindu–Muslim interactions in medieval and early modern India have been mostly studied in monolithic or antagonistic terms. This volume not only explores the multiplicity within a given religious tradition but also focuses on the exchanges across the various religious communities in north India from AD 1500 to 1800—thereby presenting a panoramic view of religious interactions during the period broadly regarded as Mughal.    Drawing on a wide range of sources, the essays in this volume focus on Islamicate and Hindu traditions in their interactions with one another. They interrogate the idea of ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ as polarized religious identities existing from the moment Muslims entered north India in the eleventh century, and discuss the close intertwining of religious traditions with political power, while also highlighting the diversity of traditions in active conversation with one another.    Given the contentious nature of Hindu–Muslim relations today, a fresh study of these traditions in their regional and temporal specificities, along with a renewed attempt to closely interrogate the language employed in describing them, is vital toward contesting contemporary “clash of civilizations” narratives in South Asia as well as elsewhere.

Table of contents

Acknowledgments